Skip to main content

This Amazon Prime crime show just got a second season — before it even debuts

Amazon Prime Video is betting on this new series

By Joe Allen May 4, 2024 5:30 AM

Amazon Prime

In an era when more and more studios and streaming services are cutting costs, it can be surprising to see a studio be so confident in a property that they give it multiple seasons before a single episode has aired. In the case of Amazon Prime Video’s new series, Cross, though, that’s exactly what happened.

The show, which is based on James Patterson’s best-selling novels about a detective and forensic pathologist who analyzes the minds of killers as he works to catch them, has been renewed for a second season before its first season has premiered. The show stars Aldis Hodge as Alex Cross and also stars Ryan Eggold, Isaiah Mustafa, Alona Tal, Johnny Ray Gill, Eloise Mumford and Siobhan Murphy.

Recommended Videos

Cross first landed a series order at Prime Video in October of 2022 and had been in development for two years before that. Paramount Television Studios and Skydance Television, the companies behind Prime Video’s ultra-successful series Jack Ryan, are also producing this series.

This is far from the first Alex Cross adaptation

Tyler Perry holding a gun as Alex Cross. — Lionsgate

Alex Cross has been featured in 32 different James Patterson novels, including 2023’s Alex Cross Must Die. The character has also been adapted to the screen before. Tyler Perry took on the role in 2012’s Alex Cross, and Morgan Freeman played the character twice in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, which were adaptations of two of Patterson’s novels.

Given the level of interest around the series, it makes sense that it would get a second season push before it even premiers (no firm date has been scheduled yet).

Prime Video is all in on dad TV

Bosch – Season 1 Official Trailer | Prime Video

Prime Video’s premature renewal of Cross is an important reminder that many of the shows that seem to work best for the streaming service are things like Jack Ryan, Bosch, and Reacher. All of these shows were adapted from crime novels of one kind or another, and they’re all an ideal combination of high and low-brow.

These kinds of shows are meant to appeal to a certain kind of middle-aged man who loves procedurals and shows that function in a similar mold. They aren’t necessarily groundbreaking or inventive, but they can be a lot of fun to watch precisely because you know exactly what you’re getting the moment you sit down to watch an episode.

Of course, we haven’t actually seen a minute of Cross yet, so it’s possible that the series is much more avant garde than one might expect. Even if it is exactly the kind of TV that dads love to binge, though, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the show won’t be well-made or compelling. Dads need good TV to watch, just like the rest of us, and many of Prime Video’s most popular shows are proof that dads love Prime Video.

Joe Allen is a freelance writer at Digital Trends, where he covers Movies and TV. He frequently writes streaming… Read Full Bio

Topics

Streaming

Elevate your elegance: Choosing your first cigar

Face, Head, Person

Earlier this year, I was strolling the streets of New York and ended up sitting in the Carnegie Club with an Old Fashioned in one hand and a cigar in the other while My Way by Frank Sinatra played from a speaker flanking leather-bound books behind the couch I had been using as my perch. It was my first cigar, but it led to a slight obsession that recently found me on the back deck of a lodge in Kenya, staring at Mount Kilimanjaro and smoking a stick while giraffes meandered by. Admittedly, there has been no intention in my budding hobby; I am aimlessly choosing the cigars that look good (the ones that look like those smoked by Arnold or Stallone in the movies, obviously). But I have decided to approach these in a new way, with a little help from my friends over at La Aurora, who graciously decided to navigate my ignorance with some info compiled by Brand Manager John Gaglio, with input from Master Blender Manuel Ynoa, CEO Ed McKenna, and Brand Manager Elvis Batista.

What to look for in your first cigar

FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Is Uglifying the Beautiful Game With $20 Billion Plot — But the Global Soccer Community’s Punching Back

People, Person, Crowd

For the better part of two decades, perhaps even more, corruption has allegedly run rampant within FIFA. Sepp Blatter, in particular, became the face of alleged extortion schemes, and he operated with impunity while at the helm of the organization for 17 years, from 1998 until his forced resignation in 2015 amid an FBI corruption probe. He’s banned for life from all football-related FIFA activities. If you’re new to the organization’s alleged deep connection to corruption, Netflix offers a brilliant 2022 documentary, FIFA Uncovered. In that documentary, Gianni Infantino appears in his previous capacity as Secretary General of UEFA (2009-2016) and later as the newly elected FIFA president, who vowed to root out corruption and hand the beautiful game back to the people where it belongs.

That, as it turns out, was all wishful thinking.

Escobar Cigars, Co-Owned by Nas, Drops Four-Profile Robusto House Blend Collection

Blade, Knife, Weapon

Imagine that, Nas is getting closer to ruling the cigar world. The legendary rapper’s Escobar Cigars, which he co-owns, is making waves with the launch of a new four-profile House Blend collection. The launch is in partnership with Cigar Chief, one of North America’s largest premium cigar retailers.

The Manual has not yet had the chance to do a taste review (a pack is on the way), but Escobar Cigars says the four-profile House Blend collection (Maduro, Premium Blend Connecticut, Habano, and Connecticut Robusto) “has its own distinct wrapper, filler, and strength profile,” and that “all four are rolled in 5 x 52 Robusto format using classic Cubano entubado construction.”